Kiwis reel from deadly volcano

DISASTER: 47 PEOPLE WERE VISITING POPULAR WHITE ISLAND WHEN IT SUDDENLY EXPLODED

With eight people missing, cops say they don’t expect to find any more survivors.

Whakatane

Eight people were still missing after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand that killed five people, and there are no indications they survived the explosion, police said yesterday.

“Forty-seven people went onto the island – we can now confirm five are deceased, 31 are currently in hospital, a further eight are still missing and three have been discharged from hospital,” police official Bruce Bird said.

Among the missing are tourists from Australia, the United States, Britain, China and Malaysia.

Police said they did not expect to find any more survivors from the volcanic eruption, which occurred on White Island in the early afternoon, spewing a plume of ash thousands of feet into the air.

Rescue services have been unable to reach White Island as it remains too dangerous.

“No signs of life have been seen at any point,” the police said in their statement yesterday after rescue helicopters and other aircraft had carried out a number of aerial reconnaissance flights over the island.

“Police believe that anyone who could have been taken from the island alive was rescued at the time of the evacuation.”

Tour operators took some people off the island before it was declared unsafe.

Many day tours visit the island regularly. One from a 16-deck cruise liner, Ovation of the Seas, was there at the time.

“Both New Zealanders and overseas tourists are believed to (have been) involved, and a number were from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship,” the police statement said.

St John Ambulance said up to 20 people were believed to have been injured in the eruption, adding that a mobile triage unit was on its way.

Several people with burn injuries were brought by helicopter to